KR100562182B1 - Apparatus and method for reproduction character information recorded on a recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

In the first step, a disc is installed in the playback device. Subsequently, in the second step, the CD-TEXT data recorded in the lead-in area of the disc is read and decoded before being stored in the memory unit. At this time, the CD-TEXT data including character information is searched to find a string of characters. The second step is followed by a third step of determining whether a string representing address information is found in the search. If found, in the fourth step, the found string is recognized as address information and displayed in a format for a string representing a URL or an e-mail address.

As a result, the CD-TEXT data can be searched to find a character string recognized as address information.

Reproduction signal processing device, character information reproduction method

Description

Apparatus and method for reproduction character information recorded on a recording medium}             

1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a computer executed by an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a playback device (CD player) executed by the embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a diagram showing a frame structure of a disc (CD).

4A and 4B are diagrams used to explain the sub-coding of a disc (CD).

5A and 5B are diagrams used to describe sub-Q data of a disc (CD).

6 is a view used to describe TOC data of a disc (CD).

7 a, b, and c are diagrams for understanding the structure of text data.

A, b, c in FIG. 8 illustrate the structural relationship between the sub-encoded frame and the text data;

9 is a diagram showing the structure of a packet as text data;

10A and 10B are views used to explain a process of forming a pack from a symbol unit data into a structure of text data;

11 shows the structure of a pack.

12 is a diagram showing a structure of ID1.

13A, 13B, 13C, and 13D show the structures of ID1, ID2, ID3, and ID4.

Fig. 14 is a diagram showing the defined contents of ID1.

Fig. 15 shows the structure of a pack for storing the music name of a track as text data;

16A and 16B show a display format of a driver used in a playback device.

17A and 17B show another display format of a driver used in the playback apparatus.

18A and 18B show another display format of a driver used in the playback apparatus.

Fig. 19 is a flowchart showing a process of recognizing address information.

The present invention relates to a reproduction-signal processing apparatus for searching for character information on a character string operated by an address and generating an address.

In recent years, networks have become popular with devices such as servers owned by users and typically servers connected to the personal computer by telephone lines. In the following description, a personal computer is simply referred to as a computer.

A user can obtain various kinds of information from a server used in a network by using a computer which is a terminal of a network. In this case, the user activates browser software for displaying information on the screen of the computer and inputs the required address of the server used as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) into the browser software. Subsequently, the user executes an operation of making a communication process with the server. In doing so, access is made to the server specified by the URL via the necessary path on the network. In this case, the computer may receive various kinds of information such as texts and images transmitted by the server.

On the other hand, audio CDs are known which allow the required character information to be typically stored in the Table of Contents (TOC) of the lead-in area of the CD. Such CDs are known as CD-TEXT. Character information added to the TOC includes information such as the title of the disc, the name of the artist and / or the title of the music. By reading this kind of information from the audio CD and displaying it on the screen, information about the contents of the audio CD can be obtained in character form.

A device for playing information from an audio CD may be connected to or included in a computer. Various kinds of processing executed by this kind of apparatus, such as reproduction and interruption operations, can be controlled by the control means used in the computer. In this case, the user executes various kinds of operations according to the operation screen or operation window generated by the computer and displayed on the monitor unit as a graphical user interface (GUI).

The operation screen particularly shows character information such as music playing time, artist name and music title, and buttons operated by the user to execute various processes. Everything that appears on the operation screen is obtained from the TOC. In addition, if further information about the music and the artist is available on the network, the URL of the information is recorded in the TOC as text information.

Moreover, if it is possible to send an e-mail to the artist, the artist's postal address is included in the TOC as character information such as a URL.

However, in order to access the URL, the user needs to input a character string representing the URL by himself or herself into the browser software. In addition, when the browser software is not activated, an operation for invoking the browser software needs to be executed.

Moreover, in order to deliver an e-mail, the user also needs to enter a character string representing a postal address by himself in a postal delivery software, which is simply referred to as a mailer.

 As described above, the user must enter a string to achieve actual access despite the fact that the string is written to the TOC. Thus, the user must find the string stored in the TOC for the string representing the address and perform a complex operation on the associated software. As a result, a problem arises in that information cannot be easily obtained from a network.

In addition, when an invalid character string is input, accurate access cannot be made even if communication is started. As a result, in some cases the communication process is suspended.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above problems and to provide an apparatus and method for reproducing character information from a recording medium and recognizing the character information as an address without the user having to perform complicated operations.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, an apparatus for processing a reproduction signal provided by the present invention is:

Reproducing means for reproducing information recorded on the recording medium;

Character-information detection means for detecting character information recorded in the information control area of the recording medium and reproduced by the reproduction means;

Character string searching means for searching character information detected by said character-information detecting means to find a character string representing address information; And

And address-information generating means for generating address information on the basis of the search result outputted by the character string search means.

In addition, the reproduction signal processing apparatus also provided by the present invention includes:

Memory means for storing character information reproduced from the recording medium;

Search means for searching for character information stored in said memory means to find a character string representing address information; And

And display control means for displaying, on the display means, information indicating whether or not the address information is included in the character information according to the search result outputted by the search means.

Moreover, a method of reproducing character information from a recording medium on which audio data also provided by the present invention is:

Reproducing character information from the recording medium;

Searching for the reproduced character information to find a character string representing address information; And

And displaying information indicating whether the address information is included in the character information according to the search result.

According to the present invention, a character string corresponding to the address information can be recognized as address information from character information stored in the recording medium. In addition, it is possible to eliminate the operation of entering complex strings for access to these addresses or for other purposes.

The invention is further evident from the detailed description of some preferred embodiments given below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The reproduction apparatus implemented by the embodiment of the present invention is a CD player capable of reproducing a signal from an optical disc (CD).

Note that explanations are given in the following order.

(1) configuration of computer

(2) Configuration of the playback device

(3) TOC and sub-code

(4) Text Data

(5) Display format of operation screen

(6) disk installation procedure

(1) configuration of computer

1 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of a computer. In addition to the playback device 20, the functional block diagram shown in the drawing may be implemented in software or hardware.

The computer 1 runs as a personal computer. The computer 1 is designed to execute various applications that meet the needs of a user by the basic operation by the execution of software called an operating system (OS) and the execution of the software called an application program. In this embodiment, the application program includes a driver for driving a playback device such as a CD player to be described later, and a browser for observing information obtained from a network such as the Internet.

Input units used by a user to input commands requiring various kinds of processing include a keyboard 2 and a mouse 3. Various kinds of operation information input via the keyboard 2 and the mouse 3 are supplied to the control unit 4, and then the control unit executes control of the functional block to be described later based on the operation information.

The mouse 3 is used to move the pointer displayed on the monitor unit. After operating the mouse 3 to position the pointer to point to one of the various icons formed by the GUI, a button on the mouse 3 is clicked to execute a function corresponding to the icon indicated by the pointer. .

The recording medium 5 is typically executed by, in particular, a hard disk for storing the OS and various application programs. In general, the OS is loaded from the recording medium 5 into the memory unit 6 when the computer 1 is activated. The application program is appropriately loaded from the recording medium 5 into the memory unit 6 when necessary after the computer 1 is activated. The memory unit 6 is typically executed by a random access memory (RAM).

The memory unit 6 is a buffer area for storing software loaded from the recording medium 5 after activation of the computer 1 and a work area for storing data used for executing processing by various kinds of software execution. It includes.

Software such as OS and application programs loaded into the memory unit 6 and placed in an active state is designed to include various kinds of data such as necessary audio data such as alarm sound or image data for constructing a GUI. Image data and audio data are appropriately loaded from the memory unit 6 in accordance with an operation performed by a user, and supplied to the image-signal processing unit 7 and the audio-signal processing unit 9, respectively.

On the basis of the image data received from the memory unit 6, the image-signal processing unit 7 provides a menu screen for easily executing various operations and various kinds of settings, a window displaying various kinds of information, and a pointer. Generates an image signal to form a GUI such as The image signal is then supplied to the monitor unit 8 which is installed externally and used to display the image, and is displayed thereon as a GUI image via the output terminal t1.

On the basis of the audio data received from the memory unit 6, the audio-signal processing unit 9 generates an audio signal such as an alarm sound for an operation performed by the user. The audio-signal processing unit 9 may also generate an audio signal based on the data produced by the reproduction device 20 to be described later. The audio signal generated by the audio-signal processing unit 9 is supplied to the speaker 10 installed at an external position through the output terminal t2.

However, it is noted that the monitor unit 8 and the speaker 10 can also be integrated with the computer 1 to be formed as a single body.

In addition, an interface unit 11 is provided so that the computer 1 can transmit and receive various kinds of information to and from the network via a telephone line used as a network line. The interface unit 11, which is typically composed of a modem and a terminal adapter TA, is used to demodulate the encoded data received from the network line via the interface terminal t3. Demodulated data, which may be a character, an image, or a sound, is temporarily stored in the buffer area of the memory unit 6, and optionally read out later when necessary.

The computer 1 is also stored after the data is temporarily stored in the buffer area of the memory unit 6 and subsequently modulated with the appropriately encoded data by the interface unit 11 and also transmitted through the interface terminal t3. It transmits various kinds of data to a server provided in a network that operates as various kinds of information sources for distribution. Examples of data include data generated by the computer 1 for transmission, such as electronic mail, and Uniform Resource Locator (URL), text data, and image data. The URL is an address code used in necessary access processing.

It should be noted that the interface unit 11 may also be provided to the computer 1 as an external unit.

The reproducing apparatus 20 used in the present embodiment can typically execute CD-DA reproducing processing for audio data recorded on an optical disc.

If the TOC read by the reproduction device 20 includes CD-TEXT data, the CD-TEXT data is stored in the memory unit 6, and decoding processing necessary for converting the data into character information is performed. The decoding process of the CD-TEXT data is executed by the computer 1 by the execution of the software. However, it is noted that, in place of the decoding software, hardware for executing the decoding process of the CD-TEXT data may be provided to the computer 1 or the reproduction device 20.

Character information includes address information such as URLs and e-mail addresses that can be used to obtain more information about music and artists from the network, in addition to information about music recorded on the disc, such as the disc title, artist name, and music name. .

In the present invention, such character information is searched as a character string. A string with a typical format of "http: //www.***.***" representing a URL or a typical format of "***@***.**.**" representing an e-mail address When a character string is detected, typically, the control unit 4 recognizes this character string as a URL or an e-mail address, which are all referred to as address information.

Each such address information is typically displayed as a string or icon with information about the music name, as will be explained later. By selecting either the character string or the icon, a process of invoking software for generating an e-mail or a process of obtaining information stored in a URL is executed.

(2) Configuration of the playback device

2 is a block diagram showing a typical configuration of the playback device 20. As shown in FIG.

The reproduction device 20 has a configuration capable of reproducing a signal from a disc 21 such as a CD-ROM, a CD, or a CD-TEXT. The disc 21 is mounted on the reproducing apparatus so that it can be driven to rotate by a spindle motor 22. The reproducing apparatus 20 is controlled by the control unit 4 used in the computer 1 shown in Fig. 1, and when the spindle motor 22 is in the rotating state, the data recorded on the disc 21 is optically It is read by an optical pickup 23.

The reproduction signal generated by the optical pickup 23 is supplied to the servo-signal processing unit 30. In the servo-signal processing unit 30, the reproduction signal is received from the disc 21 by the RF amplifier 31 which first converts the reproduction RF signal into binary data. In addition, the RF amplifier 31 also executes various kinds of signal processing for generating a tracking-error signal TE and a focus-error signal FE.

The tracking-error signal TE and the focus-error signal FE generated by the RF amplifier 31 are various kinds such as tracking control and focus control from the tracking-error signal TE and the focus-error signal FE. Is supplied to a servo-signal processing circuit 32 for generating various servo drive signals for carrying out the control. The servo drive signal is supplied to the focus driver 33 and the tracking driver 34 to drive the focus actuator and tracking actuator provided in the optical pickup 23, respectively, to execute various servos.

Other servo machines not shown in the figure, such as a thread mechanism for moving the optical pickup 23 in the radial direction of the disc 21, are also subjected to servo drive signals generated by the servo-signal processing circuit 32. It should be noted that it can be controlled by.

The reproduction RF signal generated by the RF amplifier 31 is supplied to the PLL unit 35, the EFM-demodulation unit 36, and the timing-generating unit 37.

The PLL unit 35 generates an clock signal synchronized with the reproduction RF signal, and executes processing such as EFM demodulation and CIRC decoding to generate a digital audio signal from information read from the disk 20 ( The clock signal is supplied.

The digital audio signal is supplied to the signal processing unit 38 and various kinds of processing such as error correction and error-data interpolation are performed before being output to the interface unit 42. An interface unit 42, typically executed by a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) or AT Attachment Packet Interface (ATAPI), allows the playback device 20 to be connected to the computer 1 shown in FIG.

The timing-generating unit 37 generates a timing signal synchronized with the regenerative RF signal and drives a spindle motor 22 to rotate at a constant linear speed in synchronization with the regenerative RF signal (CLV). 39 to the timing signal.

The sub-codes separated by the EFM-demodulation unit 36 are of various kinds, including error detection from the sub-codes, separating the data of the P and Q channels composed of the sub-codes and the data of the R to W channels from each other. It is fed to a sub-code processor 40 to execute the processing of. Data of the P and Q channels and data of the R to W channels are supplied to the interface unit 42.

CD-TEXT data included in the R to W channels of the sub-code recorded in the TOC are transferred to the computer 1 through the interface unit 42, as will be described later.

In the operation of reproducing a signal from the disc 21 which is a CD-ROM, the signal output by the servo-signal processing unit 30 is supplied to the signal processing unit 50 for the CD-ROM. In the CD-ROM, a sub-code length of 1/75 seconds is designated as the data unit. In other words, a data length of 2,352 bytes is treated as one block, 12 bytes of sync are placed at the beginning of the block, followed by a 4 byte header. User data is contained within the block after the header. The header contains an address equal to the absolute address of the Q channel among the sub-codes recorded on the CD. The data structure of the CD-ROM includes the definition of mode 0, mode 1, mode 2 (type 1), and mode 3 (type 2). Data other than the sink is scrambled. In addition, an error detection signal or an error correction signal is encoded for each block.

This data for the CD-ROM is divided into blocks, and various kinds of processing such as error-correction coding and EFM modulation are performed before being written to the CD-ROM. For this reason, the signal processing unit 50 for the CD-ROM includes a descrambler 51 for descrambling data and an error-correction circuit for decoding an error-detection signal or an error-correction signal of each block. 52). The reproduction data of the CD-ROM generated by the error-correction circuit 52 is transmitted to the computer 1 via the interface unit 42.

The system controller 41, which is typically executed by the microcomputer, controls the servo-signal processing unit 30, the CD-ROM signal processing unit 50, and the interface unit 42 to execute various kinds of processing. . For example, data is reproduced from the disc 21 in accordance with a read command transmitted by the computer 1, and the reproduced data is supplied to the computer 1 via the interface unit 42.

(3) TOC and sub-code

Next, the TOC and sub-code recorded in the lead-in area of the disc 21 will be described.

The smallest unit of data recorded on the disc 21 is one frame. The 98 frames constitute one block or one sub-coded frame.

The structure of one frame is shown in FIG.

As shown in the figure, one frame is 588 bits long. The head of the frame is provided with 24-bit synchronization data, followed by three margin bits. The margin bits lead to a 14-bit sub-code data area, which leads to main data with 12 symbols and parity data with 4 symbols.

98 frames each having such a configuration constitute one block. The sub-codes extracted from the 98 frames are collected to form a block of sub-code data as shown in Fig. 4A.

More specifically, the sub-codes extracted from the first and second frames of the 98 frames, that is, the frames 98n + 1 and 98n + 2, are used as the synchronization pattern. The sub-codes fetched from the third to the 98 th frames of the 98 frames, i.e., the frames 98n + 3 to 98n + 98, are 96 bits of channel data, that is, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, and Configure the sub-code data of the W channel.

P and Q channels are used for control of operations such as access. However, since the P channel simply shows the pause portion between the tracks, it is necessary to perform finer control using the Q channels Q1 to Q96. The 96-bit data of the Q channel has the structure shown in Fig. 4b.

The data of the R to W channels are provided to form a text data group as will be described later.

First, four bits (Q1 to Q4) are used as control data for providing information such as the number of audio channels, the presence of emphasis, and the type of CD.

In detail, four bits of control data are defined as follows.

"0 ***" ----- 2 audio channels

"1 ***" ----- 4 audio channels

"* 0 **" ----- CD-DA

"* 1 **" ----- CD-ROM

"** 0 *" ----- Impossible digital copy

"** 1 *" ----- Digital copy possible

"*** 0" ----- No Emphasis

"*** 1" ----- With Emphasis

The next four bits (Q5 to Q8) are addresses that are also operated with control bits of the sub-Q data.

In detail, the 4-bit address "0001" indicates that the following sub-Q data Q9 to Q80 are audio Q data, and the 4-bit address "0100" indicates that the subsequent sub-Q data Q9 to Q80 is a video Q. Indicates data.

As such, 72 bits (Q9 through Q80) are sub-Q data, while the remaining bits (Q81 through Q96) are CRC.

As described above, the sub-Q data recorded in the lead-in area is TOC information.

In other words, the sub-Q data composed of 72 bits (Q9 to Q80) of the Q-channel data read out from the lead-in area has information as shown in Fig. 5A. As shown in the figure, the sub-Q data has data portions each having a length of 8 bits.

The first data portion is a track number. The track number for the lead-in area is a fixed number to "00".

The track number is followed by the POINT followed by the MIN (minutes), SEC (seconds), and FRAME (frame number).

The last three data parts are PMIN, PSEC, and PFRAME, which have the following meanings depending on the value of POINT.

The value of POINT in the range of "01h" to "99h" is a track number. Here, the subscript h indicates that the value is displayed in hexadecimal format. In this case, the absolute-time address or starting point of the track, represented by the track number, is recorded in minutes in PMIN, seconds in PSEC, and frame number in PFRAME.

When POINT is "A0h", the track number of the first track is recorded in PMIN. CD-ROM, CD-I, and CD-DA with XA specification are distinguished from each other by the value of PSEC.

If the POINT is "A1h", the track number of the last track is recorded in PMIN.

If the POINT is "A2h", the start point of the lead-out area is recorded in PMIN, PSEC, and PFRAME as absolute time addresses.

In the case of a disc in which data is recorded in six tracks, the TOC for recording the sub-Q data portion has a data structure as shown in FIG.

As shown in the figure, the track numbers TNO are all "00h".

The block number is the number of the sub-Q data portion of the block data having 98 frames as described above.

TOC data is stretched over three blocks, each having the same content.

As shown in the figure, when POINT has a value in the range of " 01h " to " 06h ", PMIN, PSEC, and PFRAME show the starting points of tracks # 1 to # 6, respectively.

If the POINT value is "A0h", the track number "01h" of the first track is recorded in PMIN. CD-ROMs, CD-Is, and CD-DAs with XA specifications are distinguished from each other by PSEC values. More specifically, a PSEC value of "00h" indicates that the disc is a CD-DA, and a PSEC value of "20h" indicates that the disc is a CD-ROM having an XA specification. A PSEC value of "10h" indicates that the disc is CD-I.

If the POINT value is "A1h", the track number of the last track is recorded in PMIN. If the POINT value is "A2h", the start point of the lead-out area is recorded as an absolute-time address in PMIN, PSEC, and PFRAME. .

Blocks n + 27 and subsequent blocks each contain the same data as blocks n through n + 26.

In the disc 1, the tracks # 1 to #n for recording actual data such as music and the sub-Q data recorded in the lead-out area include the information shown in Fig. 5B.

As shown in the figure, the first field is a track number having a value in the range of "01h" to "99h". In the lead-out area, the track number is a fixed value "AAh".

The next field is an index to record the information that allows the field to be divided into finer parts.

The elapsed time of the track is recorded as minutes in MIN, seconds in SEC, and frame number in FRAME.

Absolute-time addresses are recorded as minutes in AMIN, seconds in ASEC, and frame numbers in AFRAME.

The TOC and sub-codes are formed as described above. Addresses on the disc, i.e., AMIN, ASEC, and AFRAME, are recorded for each 98 frames as is apparent from the above description.

As described above, the 98 frame constitutes one block called a sub-encoding frame. Thus, one second of audio data includes 75 sub-encoded frames. In other words, the AFRAME representing the address is a value in the range of "0" to "74". It should be noted that in the frame check processing to be described later, the continuity of data is checked in units of sub-coded frames.

(4) text data

The following describes the text data included in the sub-code with the structure shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. First, a general structure of text data will be described with reference to FIGS.

When only text data is extracted from the sub-code and generally viewed, the structure of the text data is shown as shown in Figs. 7A to 7C. 7A shows multiple texts, each with the same data content. In other words, the sub-codes have a predetermined number of written texts, each with the same data content.

One text typically has a maximum of 2,048 packs, as will be explained later. However, considering the time for reading the text, it is proposed that the text not consist of more than 512 packs. The text thus proposed has a data amount of about 6,500 characters.

As shown in FIG. 7B, the text has blocks # 0 through #n, where n is typically defined to have a value in the range of 0-7. Thus, the text has up to eight blocks.

Blocks in the text each contain information of the same text data described in a language that changes from block to block. For example, block # 0 contains text data described in English and representing various kinds of information on the disk, and block # 1 contains the same text data as block # 0 described in Japanese.

Since the text can be composed of up to eight blocks, in this embodiment, the format of the text data can be provided in up to eight languages.

As shown in Fig. 7C, a block has data units, i.e., packs # 0 through #n, where n is a number less than 256. Thus, blocks consist of up to 256 packs. The data structure of the pack and its related information is described with reference to FIGS. 8, 9, and 10.

FIG. 8A is a diagram illustrating the data area of the sub-encoded frame of FIG. 4A with 98 frames as described above.

Among the 98 frames, the first and second frames, that is, the frames 98n + 1 and 98n + 2, are used as regions for the synchronization patterns SO and S1, respectively, as described above with reference to FIG. 4A. The regions of the P and Q channels in the third to the 98th frames, i. The data area for.

The regions of the R to W channels in the third to the 98 th frames are packs 0 to 3 as shown in the figure. The data size of each pack is fixed. As shown in Fig. 8B, the pack has 24 symbols, i.e. symbols 0 to 23. As shown in Fig. 8C, a symbol is a 6-bit data unit having channel data of R, S, T, U, V, and W channels in one frame. In this case, the data of the R channel is the MSB, and the data of the W channel is the LSB.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a data structure with four packs, i.e., packs 0 to 3, extracted from a sub-coded frame having the structure shown in FIG. 8A.

As described with reference to Figs. 8A and 8B, the pack has 24 symbols of 6 bits each.

Thus, the pack has 24 symbols x 6 bits / symbol = 24 x 6/8 bytes = 18 bytes. In other words, the data size of the pack is 18 bytes. The first 16 bytes are used as the ID area at the beginning of the pack and the text-data area following the ID- area, as shown in the figure. The remaining two bytes are used as the CRC area.

As described above, the sub-encoded frame includes 4 packs, and the data unit having this set of packs is defined as a packet. Since a pack has 24 symbols, it can be considered that a packet consists of 4 packs x 24 symbols / pack = 96 symbols.

On the other hand, in this embodiment, the format of the text data includes the CRC error detection code as described above. Error correction is not performed when text data is read. Instead, errors accumulate to be detected. When an error is detected, the data is detected again.

Thus, the same data is recorded in four packs. In addition, data is repeatedly recorded in packet cycles, each beginning at the beginning of the data series and ending at the tail of the data series. With this structure, the processing unit having a complicated configuration required for error correction of the text data in the CD conversion player configuration of the embodiment applied to the text data can be eliminated.

FIG. 10 and FIG. 11 show data of one pack shown in FIG. 9 in a line.

As is apparent from Fig. 10A, data is treated in the format of text data adopted by the embodiment in which 6-bit symbols are arranged in a line to form a series of data defined at intervals of 8 bits (one byte).

As shown in Figs. 10B and 11, in the format of the text data adopted by this embodiment, the ID area at the beginning of the pack is used to record ID data, i.e., ID1, ID2, ID3, and ID4. In the text data format of this embodiment, a series of data is defined by being treated at 8-bit (1 byte) intervals, so that the remainder of 12 bytes following ID1 to ID4 at the beginning of the pack 16 bytes as shown in FIG. 10B. The area can be designated as a text-data area, and the remaining two bytes following 16 bytes become the CRC area.

The 12-byte text-data area is treated as 8-bit data unit text 1 through text 12 as shown in the pack structure of FIG.

In the format of the text data adopted by this embodiment, the data in the pack is controlled in 8-bit units. Further details are omitted. In any ratio, the text data can be processed by applying the processing method for the data of the Q channel processed in 8-bit units.

In the format of the text data adopted by this embodiment, according to the CD format other than that for the text data, the upper 3 bits of ID1 at the beginning of the pack can be interpreted in mode, and the following 3 bits are shown in FIG. It may be treated as an item as shown.

In the upper 3-bit mode, the value "100" is set to indicate mode 4. Mode 4 is not defined in the current state of the art. In this method, if a CD for recording text data is installed in a playback apparatus that is not compatible with the text data, the value set in the mode field is not recognized as a mode, so the operation is simply stopped. As a result, incorrect operations are not performed.

Note that modes 5 and 6 also exist as undefined modes respectively, so these modes can also be set in the mode field instead of mode 4. For reference, modes such as mode 1 for CD-G and mode 3 for CD-MIDI are already in use.

It is also worth noting that the values for the items are not set specifically. As will be described later, the lower three or more bit values change depending on the identification defined by ID1. In practice, the lower four bits change.

The following describes defining ID1, ID2, ID3, and ID4 in the format of the text data adopted by this embodiment with reference to FIGS. 13A to 13D and 14. 13A to 13D are diagrams showing formats of ID1 to ID4, respectively, and FIG. 14 is a diagram for explaining identification contents specified by a code set in ID1.

The 8-bit ID1 data shown in FIG. 13A includes code for identifying the meaning of the string stored in the area following Text 1 in the text-data area of the pack. The code may have a value in the range of "80h" to "8Fh".

The reason that the upper 4 bits of ID1 is always set to the hexadecimal value "8h" is that when the upper 3 bits of ID1 are interpreted as a mode, the mode has a value of "100", as described above with reference to FIG. 12. This is because it can be identified as mode 4.

The meanings of the "80h" to "8Fh" values set in ID1 are shown in FIG. As shown in the figure, when ID1 has a value of "80h", the string following the text 1 is the title of the album when the value of ID2 is "00h", and the value of ID2 is in the range of "01h" to "63h". If present, this is the name of the music recorded on the track.

If ID1 has a value of "81h", the string following text 1 is the name of the performer, conductor, or orchestra. If ID1 is " 82h " or " 83h ", the string is the name of the song composer or writer, respectively. When ID1 has a value of "84h", the character string is the name of the music arranger. If ID1 has " 85h ", the string is a message from the CD provider or the player, such as the name of the record producer.

When ID1 has a value of "86h", the string is typically a disc ID indicated by a catalog number or the name of a record producer. If ID1 has a value of "87h", the character string is text data representing the genre. When ID1 has a value of "88h", the character string is TOC data. TOC data typically represents the content according to the sub-code data of the Q channel. If ID1 has a value of "89h", the string is the second TOC.

ID1 values of "8Ah", "8Bh", and "8Ch" are designated.

When the value of ID1 is " 8Dh ", the character string describes the contents recorded in the pack and information on production control of the CD. If ID1 has a value of "8Eh", the string is the POS code of the album or the ISRC code of the track.

When ID1 has a value of "8Fh", the character string is a character code, a track number of the first track, a track number of the last track, a copy protection flag, a pack number in a block, and the like.

ID2 shown in FIG. 13B is a track number identifying the track to which the string following Text 1 in the pack's text-data area corresponds. The 8-bit ID2 may have a value ranging from "00h" to "63h" or a decimal value ranging from 0 to 99. However, since the track number starts from '1', ID2 represents a track number in the range of "01h" to "63h" or a decimal number in the range of 1 to 99. The value "00h" is a value that represents the disk as a whole.

The MSB of ID2 is an extension flag that is always set to "0". A value of "1" indicates that the extension flag is set.

ID3 shown in FIG. 13C is the internal sequence number of the pack in the block. The internal sequence number indicates the sequence number of the pack in the block containing the pack. The 8-bit ID3 has a value in the range of "00h" to "FFh" or a decimal value in the range of 0 to 255.

ID4 shown in Fig. 13D indicates a block number of a pack containing information for identifying a character code and indicates the character position of the character string as a set.

The MSB is a 2-byte-code flag area indicating whether the text data in the pack is a 1-byte code or 2-byte code. More specifically, a 2-byte-code flag with a value of '1' indicates that the text data is a 2-byte code, and a 2-byte-code flag with a value of '0' indicates that the text data is a 1-byte code. .

The three bits following the MSB, ie the second to fourth bits, are block numbers that identify the block of FIG. 7B that contains the pack. The block number is a value in the range of "000" to "111" in binary format (decimal in the range 0-7). As described above with reference to FIG. 7B, there are a maximum of eight blocks with values ranging from 0 to 7, each of which can be represented by 3 bits.

On the other hand, in the current state of the art, at least block # 0 is specified to use only 8859-1 codes including ASCII codes as text data. In other words, block # 0 typically stores textual data for an indication that uses English as the language. Note that in the following description, for convenience, the language for block # 0 is English and the ASCII code is used as the character code. Since the ASCII and 8859-1 codes are one-byte codes, the upper four bits of ID4 of each pack included in block # 0 are "0000".

The lower 4 bits of ID4 are information about the character position of the current pack. In other words, the information stored in the lower 4 bits indicates the position of the character in the string forming the set or the position of the text 1, ie the character stored in the first text of the text-data area of this pack. As shown in Fig. 13D, the values of the lower 4 bits are in the range of "0000" to "1111" expressed in binary format. For characters in the sixteenth or subsequent position, the value is "1111".

The character string forming the set means, for example, a continuous character string representing the music name on one track in the case of data representing the name of the music on the track.

Fig. 15 is a diagram showing a typical structure of a pack whose text-data area is used for storing text data representing music names for each track. In this case, as described above with reference to Figs. 13A and 14, ID1 has " 80h " and ID2 ranges from 1 to 99, respectively, in the track number of the track represented by the title described by the text data in the pack. It has a value ranging from "01h" to "63h". ID3 is the internal sequential number of the pack in the block having a value ranging from "00h" to "FFh". The three bits in ID4, i.e. the second to fourth bits, are the block number of the block of FIG. 7B containing this pack, while the MSB indicates whether the character code for the block is a 2-byte code or a 1-byte code. . For example, if the text data of this pack is an ASCII code, the upper bits of ID4 are "0000" as described above.

As described above, the lower 4 bits of ID4 are information about the character position in the current pack, that is, information indicating the position of the character in the string forming the set. In other words, the lower four bits indicate the position of the character stored in text one. In the case of text data representing the name of music for each track, the string forming the set is a string representing the music name for each track. For example, assume that the name of the music is "THIS IS A PEN". In this case, the second character "H" in the string "THIS_IS_A_PEN" is stored in the text 1 of the pack, and the lower 4 bits of ID4 of this pack become "0001 (1h)".

Thus, the first character "T" of the string "THIS_IS_A_PEN" is stored in the text-data area immediately before the pack. In other words, the format of the text data adopted in this embodiment allows the sentence strings forming the set to be stored in the stretched text-data area over successive packs. Detailed description of the format is omitted.

Data having a character code representing a music name for each track is stored in the text-data area text 1 to text 12 according to the rules according to the text-data adopted in this embodiment.

(5) Display format of operation screen

16A and 16B respectively illustrate typical screens of the operation window 70 displayed by the driving software called to allow the user to perform various operations, such as the operation of reproducing a signal using the playback device 20. Drawing.

When the user executes the operation necessary to reproduce the signal from the disc 21 installed in the playback device 20, the computer 1 activates the software for the playback device 20 and the operation window 70 in the monitor unit 8. ) Is displayed.

The menu bar 71 formed in the operation window 70 includes operation items each allowing a required operation to be executed by the driving software. An action item can typically be selected using a pointer that is not shown in the figure, and when a required action is performed on the selected item, a pull-down menu associated with that item is typically displayed.

The disc-title display unit 73, the artist-name display unit 74, and the track-name display unit 75 include a title of the disc 21, an artist's name, and a disc, each of which is provided in the playback device 20. This is an area for respectively displaying track names representing the names of music extracted from the CD-TEXT data read in (21).

The address-icon unit 76 is an area for displaying a character string extracted from CD-TEXT data in a display format that can be operated. The string has a formal format "http: //www.***.***" representing a URL or a typical format "***@***.**.**" representing an e-mail address.

The operation-icon portion 77 has an operation icon which is operated to perform an operation such as reproducing a signal from the disc 21, stopping the disc 21, or temporarily stopping the disc 21. The area to display.

FIG. 16A is a diagram showing a window in a state where a disc is not installed in the playback apparatus 20. FIG. In this state, the disc title, artist name, and track name are not displayed on the window. In addition, the address-icon portion 76 is displayed in an inoperable state.

When a disc 21 having a TOC containing CD-TEXT data such as a disc title is installed in the playback device 20, as shown in Fig. 16B, the title of the disc 21, the name of the artist, and the track name, respectively, are shown. A disc-title display unit 73, an artist-name display unit 74, and a track-name display unit 75 that display the P-display are displayed on the window. In this example, nine pieces of music are recorded on the disc 21 provided in the reproduction device 20.

The window of Fig. 16B also shows a character string indicating the URL and e-mail address included in the CD-TEXT data. Information about the music and artist recorded on the disc 21 can be obtained from a URL and / or an e-mail address. The URL and the e-mail address are displayed in the address-icon portion 76 as the URL icon 76b and the postal icon 76a, respectively, in an operable state, that is, in an active or clickable display state. Information on the disc 21, such as the disc title and address, is read from the disc 21, and a decoding process is performed before being stored in the memory unit 6. In the memory unit 6, the information is combined with the operation window 70 displayed on the screen.

If the address information is not included in the CD-TEXT data, the address-icon portion 76 is displayed on the window of Fig. 16B in an inactive state as in the case of the window shown in Fig. 16A. In other words, if only a string representing the URL is detected, only the URL icon 76b is displayed in the active state.

In the operation window 70 displayed in a state as shown in FIG. 16B, selecting the URL icon 76b typically by clicking on the icon 76b with a pointer, the computer 1 is first represented by a URL. You will activate your browser software to retrieve file data from a server on the network. After the browser software is activated, communication with the server providing the file data begins. If the browser software is activated until the URL icon 76b is operated, the necessary communication is started by operating the URL icon 76b.

On the other hand, when the postal icon 76a is selected and operated to be executed, a mailer having an e-mail address set as a forwarding destination is activated. Thus, the user only needs to write the text to the mailer and execute an action that causes the mailer to deliver the text. In this way, the text can be delivered by e-mail.

17A and 17B show a typical window for the case where the disc 21 is an omnibus album with music played by multiple artists. For each artist or each music, a URL and an e-mail address are recorded.

In this case, the track-name portion 75 includes a term circularly showing an address icon 78 for each track name to indicate whether or not a URL exists.

More specifically, FIG. 17A shows a window in which the disc 21 is not yet installed in the playback device 20. Thus, in this initial state, each address icon 78 is in an inactive state represented by a white circle in the figure.

When the disc 21 is installed in the playback device 20, the window changes from this initial state to the screen shown in Fig. 17B, which indicates that the title of the disc, the name of the artist, and the name of the track are active. Displayed includes some address icon 78 that typically turns black in order to bet. A black circle indicates that a track or music in the same column as that circle has a string indicating that it has detected a URL to it. In this typical picture, tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, and 9 each have detected address information. In other words, the display state of the address icon 78 tells the user which track has the URL for the music represented by the track.

Assume that the user operates track icon address 78. In this case, communication with the URL including activation of the browser software is executed. Also in this case, if the browser software is called, only the communication needs to be started.

As described above, the windows show address icons 78, each representing a URL. However, it should be noted that the address icon 78 can also be used to represent an e-mail address. Alternatively, if both a URL and an e-mail address are detected for the track, two address icons 78 for the track may also be displayed to represent the URL and the e-mail address, respectively.

In addition, the URL may be displayed as a string, for example, with various kinds of other information about the disc.

For example, assume that the pointer 79 is moved to and clicked on the disc-title display portion 73 as shown in Fig. 18A. In this case, as shown in FIG. 18B, an information window 80 appears to display information about the disc 21 installed in the playback device 20. In particular, the information window 80 displays various kinds of information such as the title and genre of the disc along with the artist's name, song writer, and music arranger. In addition, the information window 80 also includes an address display 81 showing the URL for obtaining more detailed information.

In the address display 81, the character string is displayed in the format of " http: //www.***..." recognized as a URL in the address-detection process. The display format of the address display 81 is typically italicized or underlined characters, or characters having a color different from the color of other items appearing in the information window 80. By providing this different display format to the address display 81, the user is aware that the address information is also displayed on the window 80. When the address display 81 is selected and clicked by the pointer 79, communication with the URL indicated by a character string in the format of " http: //www.***..." is made.

In this case, since the string represents the URL, the user can recognize the server from the beginning in the network, and communication is made therewith.

As described above, the information window 80 shown in FIG. 18B displays a URL included in the information about the disc 21 as an example of the disc information. However, in the case of an omnibus album as shown in Figs. 17A and 17B, the information window 80 may also display track information for multiple tracks along with the URL for each track (music).

Also, as described above, the URL is displayed on the address display 81 of the information window 80 shown in Fig. 18B. However, it should be noted that an e-mail address may also be displayed. In this case, software for forming an e-mail address is activated.

In addition, the display format of the character strings and icons shown in Figs. 16A, 16B, 17A, 17B, 18A, and 18B representing address information is typical. Thus, other display formats may also be used, which are typically appropriate for the configuration of the operating window.

(6) disk installation processing

The following describes the processing executed by the control unit 4 to make a communication based on a character string representing address information such as a URL or an e-mail address extracted from CD-TEXT data with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

In the following description, it is assumed that the user has made an initial setting for classifying necessary software, such as a browser program and a postal program, in advance into the recording medium 5 of the computer 1 in advance.

As shown in the figure, the flowchart starts at step S001 in which the disc 21 is installed in the playback apparatus 20. FIG. Then, the flow of the processing proceeds to step S002, where the CD-TEXT data recorded in the lead-in area of the disc 21 is decoded before being read out and stored in the memory unit 6. It should be noted that the processing executed in step S001 includes a judgment as to whether or not the CD-TEXT data is recorded on the installed disk 21, that is, whether the installed disk 21 is a CD-TEXT disk. When the CD-TEXT data is recorded on the disc 21 provided with the CD-TEXT data, the CD-TEXT data including the character information is searched for as a character string. The search range for the character string representing the address information may be the entire character data of the CD-TEXT data, or may be limited to the portion assumed to include the character string representing the address at least by identifying the ID. For example, in the case of ID1 shown in Fig. 14, portions other than those indicated by ID1 values of "88h", "89h", and "8Fh" are taken as the search range.

Subsequently, the flow of the processing proceeds to step S003 in which it is determined whether a character string representing address information is found in the search. In such a case, the flow of processing continues to step S004 in which the character string found at the time of retrieval is recognized as address information and this character data representing a URL or an e-mail address is stored in the memory unit 6. The flow of the processing then proceeds to step S005 in which the character data is displayed in the format for the address information described above. It should be noted that information such as the title of the disc and the artist name are displayed as normal character information.

Thus, when the application program for the reproduction device 20 is called, image data or diagrams for the address icons 76 and 78 that appear on the operation window 70 shown in Figs. 17A and 17B in the memory unit 6 are shown. It is possible to form image data for the address display 81 appearing on the information window 80 shown in 18b. The address display 81 or icons 76 and 78 based on the image data are displayed on the monitor unit 8 via the image-signal processing unit 7.

Subsequently, the flow of the processing is performed by the keyboard 2 or the mouse 3 in the address icon 76 or the address display 81 respectively displayed on the operation window 70 or the information window 80 displayed on the monitor unit 8. In step S006, it is determined whether or not the click operation has been executed using the " If the click operation has been executed, the flow of processing proceeds to step S007 in which it is determined whether the address icon 76 or the address display 81 indicates a URL or an e-mail address.

If the address icon 76 or the address display 81 indicates a URL, the flow of processing continues to step S008 in which the browser software is activated. Subsequently, the flow of the processing proceeds to step S009 in which communication processing for accessing the URL is executed.

On the other hand, if the address icon 76 or the address display 81 indicates an e-mail address, the flow of the processing continues to step S010 in which a process of activating the mailer with the e-mail address set as the transmission destination is executed.

As described above, CD-TEXT data containing character information is searched as a character string so that the character string is recognized as address information. Therefore, it is possible to execute a process that allows access to the network based on the address information.

As such, the user no longer needs to perform an operation of inputting a string representing an address into software such as a browser program. In addition, since the address information detected from the CD-TEXT data is displayed as an icon or character string in a predetermined format, the user can easily recognize the address information.

Moreover, since almost all of the recorded characters containing such a character string are searched, the producer of the CD-TEXT no longer needs to record the address on the disc 21 in a specific format.

As described above, this embodiment implements a reproducing apparatus for reproducing information from a CD-DA disc. However, it should be noted that the present invention can also be applied to a reproduction apparatus for reproducing information from a disc such as a DCD.

Claims (13)

An apparatus for processing a reproduction signal, the apparatus comprising: Reproducing means for reproducing information recorded on the recording medium; Character-information detection means for detecting character information recorded in the information control area of the recording medium and reproduced by the reproduction means; Character-string searching means for searching character information detected by said character-information detecting means to find a character string representing address information; And And address-information generating means for generating address information on the basis of a search result outputted by said character-string search means. The method of claim 1, Display means for displaying the text information; And And display control means for displaying the address information on the display means together with the part of the other character information in a format different from that of the part of the other character information. A reproduction signal processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said display control means displays on said display means information indicating whether character information recorded on said recording medium includes address information. The reproduction signal processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the information displayed on the display means by the display control means to indicate whether character information recorded on the recording medium includes address information. . 3. The reproduction signal processing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising operation means for activating other software associated with the address information displayed on the display means. In the reproduction-signal processing apparatus, Memory means for storing character information reproduced from the recording medium; Searching means for searching the character information stored in the memory means to find a character string representing address information; And And display control means for displaying on the display means, together with the character information, information indicating whether or not the address information is included in the character information in accordance with a search result outputted by the search means. 7. The reproduction-signal processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the information displayed on the display means by the display control means to indicate whether character information recorded on the recording medium includes address information. 7. An apparatus as claimed in claim 6, further comprising operating means for activating other software associated with the address information displayed on the display means. The method of claim 6, The recording medium includes a plurality of tracks; And the display control means displays on the display means a part of information indicating whether or not address information for one of the tracks is included in the character information. A method of reproducing character information from a recording medium for recording audio data, the method comprising: Reproducing character information recorded on the recording medium; Searching for the reproduced character information to find a character string representing address information; And And displaying, on the display means, information indicating whether the address information is included in the character information according to a search result, together with the character information. A method according to claim 10, wherein the information displayed on the display means to indicate whether the address information is included in the character information is an icon. 11. A method according to claim 10, wherein when the address information is included in the character information, the address information is displayed on the display means together with the character information in a format different from that of the character information. 11. Characters according to claim 10, further comprising activating predetermined application software in accordance with an input operation executed on the information displayed on the display means to indicate whether the address information is included in the character information. How to play information.

Images